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Monday, March 28, 2011

You know that time you stubbed your toe and the blinding pain caused you to shout a string of choice words that would make your mother cringe? Turns out you weren't being rude — you were easing the pain. Researchers at Keele University in the UK have found that swearing can have a painkilling power, especially for people that don't regularly curse. To test their theory, Dr. Richard Stephens and other scientists conducted an experiment with student volunteers. The students were asked to...

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Saturday, March 19, 2011

4 Things to Do When Your Child Become Rude. What you should do when your child acts rude toward you? You may think that your child doesn't respect you as her parent. Then, you would think that you need to give your child a lesson, or you would think other ideas to keep your child [...] Related posts:

Guilt is powerful and it helps keep us from doing certain things. Guilt can also be a motivator when it comes to admitting we've done things wrong and that we need help.

Feelings of Guilt

Many drug and alcohol abusers know that what they are doing is wrong, even though they keep doing it. Some addicts feel guilt for their actions. Some realize the pain they've caused loved ones, or the financial trouble they got themselves into because of their addiction. These occasional feelings of guilt may not be enough to overcome the urge of an addiction, however, and so the substance abuse continues.

Other people do feel guilty every time they use, or every time they drink. These are the people who have enough moments of sobriety to see the effects of their addiction. They may see their young children who don't deserve this kind of life, or they may see the drama they cause in their family. Guilt is a good motivator, and it often helps these people see they need treatment.

Lack of Guilt

Many people, however, don't even realize the pain they cause, so they feel no guilt at first. Addiction is so powerful that it can blind us to the reality around us. Addicts can be so focused on satisfying their cravings that they don't care who gets hurt, or what crimes they may commit to get their drugs. That's why it is often very difficult to reach out to a loved one who has an addiction. They may honestly think they have not done anything really wrong. Because they don't see the pain caused, they don't feel the need for help.

Feelings of Shame

While not all people with an addiction may feel guilt before treatment, many people do feel shame. Shame is the tendency to feel bad about oneself, or one's reputation. A drug addict can feel shame over what other people may think of them, but this attitude actually keeps people from seeking treatment. A study done at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) and George Mason University in Virginia distinguishes between feelings of shame and guilt with regards to substance abuse treatment. While guilt drives someone to treatment and to do better, shame makes people hide their problem.

Guilt vs. Shame

A breaking point in many addicts' lives is when they feel guilty about their actions. Sometimes this realization comes before seeking treatment, other times an intervention is necessary to help the person see. Still other people will not really feel guilt until partway through treatment when they are sober enough to see it.

On the other hand, we need to continue to clear up the stigma related to addiction. Instead of pointing fingers and making people feel ashamed, a better approach is to offer help and guidance so that the person can get better. Those who do feel shame need to see that the best thing for them and their loved ones is to get help.

Reports say that Catherine Zeta-Jones has been treated for a mental health disorder. This well-known actress is often thought of as being a strong individual. She plays leading roles in movies, she is viewed as having her life together, and she has been recognized for caring for her husband, actor Michael Douglas, as he battled throat cancer last year. Even with rumors of mental health problems in the past, she has remained constant through it all. But as fans have seen this week, mental illness can happen to anyone, and recognizing it and getting treatment is important.

Characteristics of Bipolar II

Zeta-Jones was admitted into a Connecticut mental health facility where she was treated for bipolar II disorder. This disorder, like bipolar I, is characterized by cycling episodes of a happy "high" feeling, and a low, depressed feeling. Bipolar II is the less severe of the two types, with the highs not becoming full blown manic episodes. Rather, the times of happiness are called hypomanic episodes. These are when the patient is happy, has more energy, and is often social and fun to be around. However, in all bipolar patients, the high is followed by a low, when getting out of bed is difficult, and the person suffers from depression. These episodes can last anywhere from days to years. Bipolar is usually detected when the depressive episodes keep the person from normal daily functions.

Bipolar disorder can affect anyone. Nearly 6 million people in the U.S. suffer from bipolar – 25% of the population. It can and does affect children, but most people are diagnosed in their late teens or early 20s with it. It does seem to have some genetic link, so that people with bipolar disorder in their immediate family are at greater risk for it themselves.

Bipolar disorder tends to get worse if not treated. It also can manifest itself more when the individual is under stress. Serious cases of bipolar disorder have left people debilitated and driven them to harm themselves or others.

Treatment for Bipolar Disorder

Treatment is important for this disorder. Treatment can be inpatient or outpatient, depending on the severity of the case and the program offered by the facility. Psychotherapy is beneficial for bipolar disorder. Medications such as mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and tranquilizers are used as well.

Because of the actions of Catherine Zeta-Jones, the public will become more educated about bipolar disorder. It is important for people to recognize the symptoms and to seek treatment when necessary. Reports say that Catherine Zeta-Jones is doing well and will be able to start work again soon. She, no doubt, gives hope to others struggling with this disorder.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

CAFFEINE INCREASES SUGAR ABSORPTION FROM THE GUT.Taking caffeine when you eat carbohydrate-containingfoods can double your rise in blood sugar (Journal ofCaffeine Research, April 16, 2011). Since more than35 percent of North Americans will become diabetic andhave high rises in blood sugar levels after meals, mostpeople should not take caffeinated drinks with mealsthat contain carbohydrates: bread, spaghetti, orsugared foods and drinks. If you are already diabetic,your blood sugar levels rise even higher and you suffercell damage from it. A high rise in blood sugar causesall the horrible side effects of diabetes: blindness,deafness, heart attacks, strokes and so forth.However, during exercise, caffeine can increaseendurance (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,July, 2010) by increasing the absorption of sugar fromyour intestines and by increasing the uptake of sugar byyour exercising muscles by as much as 26 percent(Journal of Applied Physiology, June 2006). Caffeineis found in coffee, tea, chocolate, and cocoa.

SUGARED DRINKS CAUSE HIGHER RISES IN BLOOD SUGAR THANSUGARED FOODS. No solid food is allowed to pass intoyour intestines. After food enters your stomach, thepyloric sphincter closes. Food is kept in the stomachuntil it is turned into a liquid soup. Then the stomachmuscles squeeze the soup through the pyloric sphincterinto the intestines. An orange can be kept in yourstomach for up to five hours before it passes into yourintestines. Since fruit juice is a liquid, it passesinto your intestines immediately. So orange juice causesan immediate high rise in blood sugar, while an orangedoes not. Studies show that fruits decrease diabetes risk,while fruit juices increase risk (Diabetes Care, July 2008).

CAFFEINE DRIVES BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS EVEN HIGHER. Addingcaffeine to sugar in a drink causes blood sugar levelsto rise even higher than drinks that have only sugar.

FRUIT JUICE IS AS DAMAGING AS HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP ORTABLE SUGAR. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has beenblamed for the ever-increasing rates of obesity anddiabetes in North America over the last forty years.However, HFCS appears to be no more damaging than fruitjuice or drinks sweetened with table sugar. Most softdrinks are sweetened with HFCS. Both HFCS and conventionalsugar (sucrose) contain a mixture of two sugars, glucoseand fructose, in nearly the same concentrations: HFCS has55 percent fructose/42 percent glucose, while sucrose isa 50/50 mixture. These numbers are so close that mostresearchers feel that the slight increase in theconcentration of fructose in not important enough to causedisease in itself. The fructose in orange juice, tablesugar and HFCS are equally damaging to your health.

HOW FRUCTOSE HARMS: Fructose is far more damaging tothe liver than glucose and is thought by many physiciansto be the main cause of the fatty liver that causesinsulin insensitivity and type II diabetes. When yourblood sugar rises too high, the pancreas releases largeamounts of insulin. Insulin converts sugar totriglycerides. Since high levels of blood triglyceridesincrease risk for clots, your good HDL cholesterolcarries the triglycerides from your blood to your liverto fill up the liver with fat to cause a fatty liver.Fructose causes far higher blood and liver levels oftriglycerides than glucose does, so fructose is a morepotent cause of a fatty liver. Having a fatty liverprevents the body from responding to insulin and bloodsugar levels rise to increase diabetes risk and all theharmful cell damage that diabetes causes.

DURING EXERCISE, MUSCLES PROTECT YOU. Resting musclesare inactive. They need insulin to remove sugar fromyour bloodstream. On the other hand, contractingmuscles can remove sugar from your bloodstream withouteven needing insulin (American Journal of ClinicalNutrition, July 2008). The maximum effect is duringexercise and continues maximally for up to one hourafterward and disappears at around 17 hours (Journal ofApplied Physiology, February 2010).

HOW CAFFEINE AND SUGAR HELP YOU DURING EXERCISE:Caffeine increases endurance by helping the body usemore sugar from drinks that you take during exercise(Journal of Applied Physiology, June, 2005). The limitingfactor to how fast you can move over distance is the timeit takes to get oxygen into muscles. Since sugar requiresless oxygen than fat or protein do, muscle move faster withmore power when they burn sugar. Those who took sugareddrinks with caffeine were able to absorb and use 26 percentmore of the ingested sugar than those who took the samedrinks without caffeine. Caffeine-laced drinks helpimprove endurance even more in hot weather (InternationalJournal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism,February 2011).

CAUTION! You should take caffeinated sugared drinks onlywhen you exercise and for up to an hour after you finish.Taking sugared drinks, with or without caffeine, when youare not exercising causes higher rises in blood sugars thatincrease risk for diabetes and cell damage.

Dear Dr. Mirkin: What can prevent dementia in olderpeople as they start to forget things?

Older people suffering from mild memory andcognition problems are far less likely to progress toAlzheimer's disease if they are treated to protect theirblood vessels: for high blood pressure, high triglyceridesand cholesterol, low good HDL cholesterol, abdominalobesity, diabetes and heart disease (Neurology, publishedonline April 13, 2011). In 2004, researchers started to follow 837 people,ages 55 and older, who were forgetful but did not havedementia. More than half had the signs of blood vesseldisease listed above. After five years, 35 percentdeveloped Alzheimer's and the majority were from thegroup who had signs of blood vessel disease. Thosewith blood vessel disease who received treatment were 40percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's. Slightlyless than ten percent of people with cognitiveimpairment progress to Alzheimer's each year. All people, whether they are forgetful or not,should prevent blood vessel disease by getting theirbad LDL cholesterol below 100, the diabetic test HBA1Cbelow 5.7, blood pressure below 120/80, triglyceridesbelow 120, and a pinch of their abdominal flesh smallerthan one inch. They should exercise every day, lose weightif overweight, avoid refined carbohydrates, sugared drinksand red meat, and eat plenty of fruits, vegetable, wholegrains, beans, seeds and nuts. They should also try toget their vitamin D3 level above 75 nmol/L.

No; taking calcium both with and withoutvitamin D has been shown to be associated with increasedrisk for heart attacks and strokes by more than 15percent (British Journal of Medicine. April 19, 2011).Treating 1000 people with calcium or calcium and vitaminD for five years would cause an additional six heartattacks or strokes and prevent only three fractures. Calcium supplements increase risk for heartattacks and strokes because they raise blood calciumlevels which increases chances of forming clots, a majorcause of heart attacks and strokes (J Bone Miner Res,1997;12:1959-70), thickens neck artery plaques(Atherosclerosis, 2007;194:426-32), calcifies mainarteries (J Bone Miner Res, 2010;25:505-12), increasesheart attack risk (Am Heart J, 2008;156:556-63) andcauses premature death (J Clin Endocrinol Metab,1996;81:2149-53). Taking calcium without also takingvitamin D increases heart attack risk even furtherbecause calcium blocks the activation of vitamin D tocause a relative deficiency of that vitamin.

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The e-Zine is provided as a service. Dr. Mirkin's reportsand opinions are for information only, and are not intendedto diagnose or prescribe. For your specific diagnosis andtreatment, consult your doctor or health care provider.For more information visit http://www.drmirkin.com

We DO NOT sell, rent or give your e-mail address to anyone.Copyright 2011 The Sportsmedicine Institute, Inc.http://www.DrMirkin.com

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A pipe wrench may be good for grabbing onto galvanized pipe, but it does a terrible job of turning bolts…unless you don't mind scarring up the bolt heads forever.

A hammer drives in nails well (duh), but falls behind in the fly-swatting department.

Likewise, there are some workouts that are tailor-made for being done on a stationary bike or an indoor bike trainer.

They aren't typically four hour steady-state rides, like the one that numbed both ends of my body two winters ago. While I wasn't too surprised at the numbing effect of the bike saddle…the loss of 10 IQ points after the ride did catch me off-guard.

Short, Focused Rides On A Trainer

If you just want to skip the details, and are willing to spend a few bucks, you can head over to Amazon and buy one of the 'pre-packaged' workouts put out by Spinervals or a host of other companies that produce DVDs for you to ride along with. They sell for a bit over twenty five dollars each.

Here is a common review on Amazon:

This is my favorite of the Spinerval DVDs. An excellent work out and yet I'm not crying at the end. I have using it for roughly 5 to 6 years, mostly in the winter.

But here are three 'not-so-sexy' alternatives to those DVDs.

It Only Takes 30 Minutes

Here's a quick workout that if done with a lot of effort, can raise your metabolism quite well…and keep it elevated for hours after the workout.

Ten minutes easy spinning

Alternating ten second very hard 'sprint-like' efforts with ten seconds of easy spinning. Do this for ten minutes. Don't think about it before you start, but you'll be doing 30 very hard sprints before you're finished.

Ten minutes easy warm-down.

Hard And Monotonous For Masochists

For those who like routine, or perhaps just get a kick out of adding boredom to the pain of an intense workout, here's one that I find myself doing.

10 minutes warm-up.

Five sessions of three minutes hard followed by three minutes of easy spinning. The hard intervals are done at an effort that turns on the little voice in your head that screams "Stop this insanity, NOW!" at about the two and a half minute mark. For clarification…this part of the workout takes 27 minutes (it would be 30 minutes, but the last three minutes of easy spinning can be done in the warm-down).

10 minutes warm-down.

Hard, With A Pinch Of Variety

There's no getting around it, this workout's hard…but because the number of minutes that you're going hard varies, you can sometimes delude yourself into thinking that 'this one will be fun'.

10 minutes warm-up.

2 minutes hard, followed by 2 minutes easy. (Once again, the level of intensity should be such that you're searching for the end about 30 seconds before it arrives. The same rule of thumb applies to each of the hard efforts.)

3 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes easy.

4 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes easy.

5 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes easy.

4 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes easy.

3 minutes hard followed by 3 minutes easy.

2 minutes hard.

10 minutes warm-down.

A Short Wrap-up

Well, there you have three examples of the type of workouts that are designed for an indoor bike trainer like the Cycleops mag trainer. I won't pretend that these aren't hard, but then again, no one's got a gun to your head…so if you back off a bit on the hard efforts you'll be fine.

And who knows, making the workout a bit less painful may make it more likely that you'll get back in the saddle and use your trainer again.

I wouldn't know, since I've always lacked the common sense needed to do anything with moderation.

A former distance runner with a 2:17 marathon (1983 Boston) to his credit, Dr. Ron Fritzke now relies on cycling to maintain his fitness. In his spare time, he writes about cycling products, including Cycleops Fluid trainer reviews and Kinetic Road Machine reviews.